East Memphis theater sells out 12 screens for 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1'

Meg Gould, 18, dressed as Dobby the house elf. The senior at St. Marys said she had an English quiz scheduled for 7:50 this morning.

Neely Sammons, 17, dressed as Hedwig, was among Harry Potter fans at the Paradiso Thursday night.

Meg Gould has an English test at 7:50 this morning, a quiz on "Crime and Punishment."

Fyodor Dostoevsky? Forget it. The only author she cares about right now is J.K. Rowling.

When asked her prospects for the quiz, the 18-year-old St. Mary's senior was blunt: "Probably not so well."

Well, at least Gould has a good reason for a bad score: She was one of more than 2,000 people who gathered at the Paradiso theater late Thursday for the first showings of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1."

"I read the first book when I was in the fourth grade. I was a fanatic from the beginning," said the St. Mary's senior, dressed as Dobby the house elf. "I cried when I didn't get an acceptance letter from Hogwart's when I turned 11."

Twelve of the Paradiso's theaters showed the movie, the first beginning at 12:01 with another opening every minute. Every seat was sold out, for a total of 2,132 tickets bought. The movie was over 2.5 hours long, meaning most of these fans didn't make it to bed until at least 3 a.m. Nobody minded.

"I've been waiting for this for a really long time," said 11-year-old Niki Scheinberg, due in her sixth-grade class at Bornblum Solomon Schechter School at 8 a.m.

But before the reels rolled, the lobby became an impromptu costume convention. Sure, there were tons of Harrys, Rons and Hermiones, some more convincing than others (props to the guy with the wand tip that actually lit up, even if he didn't have to say "Lumos!").

There were a couple of Voldemorts, a few Dumbledores, a few more Luna Lovegoods and at least one Hagrid. Amelia Sims, 17, was Bellatrix Lestrange while A.B. Stone, 16, was Ginny Weasley, and both were faking British accents.

But Gould's Dobby -- complete with giant ears -- stood out, as did Caroline Todd's Golden Snitch. Perhaps the best costume of the night, though, was Neely Sammons' Hedwig. She wore a white jacket covered in feathers, complete with a hat topped with a beak and eyes. ("My mother made it for me.").

Wait, is that a N'avi from Avatar? Does Katie Smith know she's at the wrong movie?

"I think I look good," said Smith, 18.

Different, anyway, like the guy wearing Spock ears to a Star Wars convention.

The crowd was young, with at least 90 percent of those there between the ages of 16 and 22, testifying to the lasting effect the seven books in the series have had on those who first picked them up in middle school, or even younger.

But the crowd was also at least 75 percent female, something of a surprise since the books don't clearly appeal to one gender over another.

Unlike, say, a certain other popular fantasy series aimed at teens.

"Oh, it's so much better than ‘Twilight,'" said 18-year-old Virginia Preston, wearing a giant snake resembling the evil Nagini around her neck. "This is worth being obsessed with. ‘Twilight' is about an obsession with men and sixpack (abs). This is about the battle between good and evil."

One other surprise cropped up Thursday night. While there were fans like Louis Frank and Augustin Casals, both of whom have read each of the seven books at least five times, there were others who couldn't quite make such a claim.

"I haven't actually read the Harry Potter books," said Sammons, who came as Hedwig anyway.

No matter. When 12:01 finally came, Sammons and those in her theater let out a raucous roar as the house lights dimmed. That roar was repeated 11 more times, one minute after the other, as the rest of the lights dimmed and the screens brightened.